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French polishing is a technique of hand-finishing wood surfaces with many thin layers of shellac to produce a shiny surface with the appearance of depth. It is a beautiful surface but not as durable as other finishes such as varnish. It can easily be damaged by water or alcohol; however, it is easier to repair than other finishes. Covering the final layer of shellac with a thin hard layer of wax helps to protect against water damage. French polishing is used on fine furniture as well as fine musical instruments.

Shellac

Shellac is the finish used in French polishing. It is the resin secreted by the lac beetle, found in Thailand and India. Workers scrape the resin from trees that harbor the beetle. It is then purified and dried into flakes. Once shellac is dissolved in alcohol, it has a shelf life of about 12 months. Furniture finishers generally mix their own shellac as needed, dissolving shellac flakes in denatured alcohol at a rate of 1 to 2 lbs. of flakes per gallon of alcohol.

Tools

Furniture finishers use shellac, alcohol, oil, pumice and sandpaper or sanding tools to produce French polish. The polish is applied using a pad of cotton fabric wrapped around a wad of gauze, wool or cotton fabric which is saturated with shellac. They also use an eye dropper for applying oil to the pad and small squeeze bottles to apply shellac and alcohol. Pumice is used to fill the pores of open-pored wood like oak as well as any imperfections.

Preparation

For the best results, the surface to be polished needs to be absolutely smooth. French polishers first sand the surface as smooth as possible. They start with medium grit sandpaper or power sanding attachments and work up to finer and finer grits until the surface is perfectly smooth. Then the surface is wiped off to remove all traces of wood dust. While applying the first layers of shellac, the finisher will sprinkle on tiny pinches of pumice, which helps to further smooth the surface and fill in any imperfections. Pumice is transparent, contributing to the appearance of depth in the final finish.

Technique

The finisher saturates the wad of gauze, wool or cotton with alcohol and shellac and then wraps a piece of smooth cotton fabric around it, squeezing it a bit to draw the alcohol and shellac out to the surface of the pad. Then he puts two or three drops of oil on the surface of the pad. The first layers need to dry very quickly, so more alcohol is used. As the pad is rubbed in circles and figure-eights on the wood, it leaves very thin layers of shellac that dry very quickly, so that in one session the finisher can apply many layers of shellac. The finisher has to be able to sense when the pad needs oil to prevent dragging and when to add more shellac or alcohol. It is an art to keep alternating these ingredients to produce the perfect finish.

Finishing

Once enough layers of shellac have been applied and have dried, the surface is lightly rubbed with alcohol to smooth any ridges of shellac without removing the finish. It also removes any oil that hasn't become part of the finish. Finally, a layer of a hard wax such as carnauba is applied to protect the shellac finish.

About the Author

Ramona French owned a massage school and taught massage for 28 years. In that time she wrote textbooks on Swedish, acupressure, deep tissue and lymph drainage massage. She is the author of "Introduction to Lymph Drainage Massage" and "Milady's Guide to Lymph Drainage Massage." Her book, "The Complete Guide to Lymph Drainage Massage," published by Milady, was released in October 2011.